The Art of the Wine Cellar

The world famous wine cellar at Constance Le Prince Maurice along the east coast of Mauritius offers one of the finest luxury experiences you’ll find anywhere in the world right now.

As you step into the cellar from L’Archipel restaurant, the coolness that wraps around you intensifies this very sensorial of experiences. Here, you can enjoy a tour of the wine cellar with one of our sommeliers and a personalised wine tasting, with delicious deli snacks to accompany the degustation.

Our sommeliers are regularly given special mention on Trip Advisor for their expertise, knowledge and brilliantly entertaining approach to interpreting the wine list for guests, to suit their own tastes and wines they’d like to try.

At Le Prince Maurice, the cellar houses some 20,000-24,000 bottles, with many rare and special vintages. Perhaps the rarest and most valued bottle would be a Champagne; Salon 1966. Salon will only release wines from the best vintages, approximately 4 per decade of around 60,000 bottles.

Wines on the list are sourced by our expert sommeliers, led by Frenchman and group sommelier Jerome Faure. Jerome sources many South African and Antipodean wines for the Constance wine lists. These wines stand up better in the Indian Ocean climate but the shipping, cellaring and service of the wine all play an important part in the guests’ experience of enjoying wines while on holiday at Constance.

Wines are brought into Mauritius using a specially temperature controlled container. On arrival, Jerome curates and distributes the wines from Le Prince Maurice to all our hotels, ensuring that each hotel stocks the finest wines, even if only in small quantity.

Keeping and serving wine in this climate is a challenge; wine in a glass will increase by 5 degrees per minute. Each of our 58 sommeliers receive at least 5 hours per week of training, along with 3 wine trips per year, where Jerome selects 6 of his team to go to South Africa, France and then one other worldwide location. This attention to detail is what makes the Constance Wine experience what it is.

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